Pip’s Patch

An Association of Rural Communities news report.

Dales’ councillors made impassioned pleas at the YDNP Authority meeting on February 3 that funding to Hudson House in Reeth should not be cut in 2013.This was but one of the recommendations made in the proposed budget following the major reduction in the Defra grant to the YDNPA for the next financial year.

David Butterworth, the YDNPA chief executive, reminded members that in the next four years the Authority could expect a £2 million reduction in its budget. “A third of our budget is disappearing,” he said. And so the members were presented with a budget in which it was proposed to cut 11 programmes, cut back heavily on its funding to the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust and to make savings in other areas. One of those proposed savings was to stop funding Hudson House once the YDNPA’s present lease contract ended in 2013. “I suspect that the recommendation would have been 2011 if we had not been contractually obliged,” said the Chief Executive, David Butterworth.

North Yorks County Coun John Blackie led the opposition to that proposal backed up by Grinton Parish Coun Harold Brown. Coun Blackie, who represents the Upper Dales,  argued that the funding to Hudson House could be reduced by £7,000 to £20,000 a year with the money coming from the YDNPA’s community understanding budget which runs to around £600,000. “In my view there is sufficient budget within Community Understanding to rearrange some of the staffing resources. Hudson House, and our continued presence there, does a lot to promote community engagement within Swaledale and Arkengarthdale at a time when the government is looking for greater community engagement.”

Both he and South Lakeland Dt Coun Kevin Lancaster reminded members that when the YDNPA sold the its building in Reeth it had been with the understanding that the Authority would continue to have a presence in that town so as to provide a service to Swaledale and Arkengarthdale.

Coun Lancaster said: “I think it is absolutely wrong headed for this authority to be contemplating pulling out of places like Reeth. I believe it is fundamentally part of what the present government is wanting to achieve with the Big Society  – Hudson House is, in many ways, a pre-exemplar of the Big Society.”

In a passionate statement Parish Coun Brown pointed out that Hudson House was the shop window for the YDNPA in Reeth and the two northern Dales. “If we pull out of Reeth the National Park will be criticised as it was in the past. We are feeling very disappointed about this news.” Dent Parish Coun Graham Dalton and Richmondshire Dt Coun Raymond Alderson also supported the proposal to continue funding Hudson House.

Others, however, felt that the proposed budget should go into the consultation period unchanged. They hoped that during the consultation period more information might become available which would help members make the right decisions when the budget was discussed again in March, before being ratified.

The Chief Executive, David Butteworth, agreed with that. He said: “When we were looking at the budget as a whole we looked at the essential provision within the National Park. We compared Reeth to the four other visitor centres we have got – Hawes, Aysgarth Falls, Grassington and Malham. There is no comparison – it gets half the number of visitors and it cannot compete in retail activity.” He added that unlike the other four it had not been listed recently among the top visitor centres in the York and Humber region.

He added that the YDNPA was just one of the partners in the community office at Hudson House with Richmondshire District Council having the main responsibility for it.

Coun Blackie responded: “I am disappointed with what Mr Butterworth had to say. This is a front line service. It’s at the heart of the local community.” He added that it did not get as many visitors as the other centres because not as many people visited Swaledale and Arkengarthdale.

His proposal to continue supporting Hudson House was defeated. So now the communities of Swaledale and Arkengarthdale must make their voices heard during the consultation period.

Later, when introducing the Save Hudson House Campaign Coun John Blackie stated:  “The likelihood that the withdrawal of the YDNPA will result in the complete collapse of Hudson House will go down incredibly badly with local people, and set back the reputation of the Authority to where it was in the 1990s. Then after a number of adverse planning decisions the YDNPA was regarded with outright hostility amidst the communities in the Two Dales, and its local people have very long memories.

“Its lead involvement in Hudson house has since led to the Authority being gradually accepted in these communities, but this perverse decision, if confirmed in March, will take it straight back to the bad old days.”